


A Brother, Dear

by R_S



Category: One Piece
Genre: Anal Sex, Blood and Gore, Comfort Sex, M/M, Oral Sex, Past Sexual Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 16:27:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2157363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_S/pseuds/R_S
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luffy is hunted by the memory of the first time he's ever killed when Zoro ruthlessly murders an entire crew of Marines while rescuing his Sencho. They've been lovers for a while, but Zoro doesn't know how to bring his normally care-free captain back from the black shock he's been driven too, that is, until Ace appears to shed some light on what exactly happened, all those years ago, and enlightens him on the kind of care Luffy needs now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Bloody Memory

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great Eiichiro Oda.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blood spills across the deck... Marine blood... Enemy blood... But it all smells and looks the same, no matter who's blood it may be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great Eiichiro Oda.

Without know it… Without really realizing it, Zoro was sitting on the steps at Merry’s stern deck. His face buried in his arms, wishing, hoping – even praying – that he would suddenly wake up from this horrible nightmare! It had been barely two weeks ago, that the Strawhat Pirates departed from an incredible adventure ten-thousand meters into the sky. They had battled a self-proclaimed God (who was just an arrogant logia-fruit user). Floated back down to the Blue Sea via an octopus balloon; landed in a famous Marine Stronghold. Managed to escape (twice!), and now… Why the hell couldn’t they catch a break? 

**

Five Marine battleships faced in on the Going Merry, a very damaged and injured Going Merry at that. Usopp was running about with planks and nails with Chopper in toe, trying to keep the leaks and punctures in the hull from breaking open and sinking them. Nami shouting hurried instructions to catch the wind to move them out of the line of fire. Robin using her ability to prevent the marines from firing off too many cannons at once. Sanji kicking away at long iron spikes and balls and grappling hooks as they were hurled in their direction… And Luffy… Shit! 

Monkey D Luffy, Rubber Man and Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, had been netted and reeled in by one of these five ships, and the trouble was… nobody knew which ship it was. The Marines had approached during a heavy fog, and while Zoro clearly saw the net approach, seen it spin and twine around his captain while they were talking. He had been unable to follow even his captain’s objecting shouts as he was yanked away from the deck and taken from them. The fog still had not really lifted, hanging like a curtain of grey soup all around them. There could be another five ships behind the ones they could see, or ten, or any number at all. For all they knew, Luffy was already being taken away to some prison in some distant part of the Grand Line, and they had no hope at all of determining where!

“Zoro! Pay attention!” Nami shouted at the swordsman as a cannonball came dangerously close to removing his head because he was busy panicking. 

“Shitty Marines!” Sanji bellowed, catching three iron balls on one leg and spinning them back towards the ship that had fired them. The explosion that followed tore at the enemy deck, vessel cracking down the side before slowly sinking below the surface of a dark and angry sea. 

“Oi, oi!!!” Zoro shouted. “Don’t sink them! We don’t know which one of them has Luffy on board!” 

Chopper crunched down on a rumble ball, puffing himself out into Guard Point to repel another barrage of incoming cannon fire. Usopp pulling back on his slingshot to neatly redirect a steel spear. The deadly shaft slipping down into the ocean before it could have hoped to reach Merry’s tender deck. 

“Can you see anything?” Nami asks Robin, coming up behind the Hana Hana no Mi user. 

Robin had her eyes closed and her arms crossed over her chest; hundreds of eyes blossoming over the distant decks and masts of the battleships, and festooned on the marines themselves as she searched for their missing captain. She shook her head. “Not yet.” She told the redheaded navigator. 

“We can’t just sit here!” Sanji shouted. A throbbing clunk echoed off his leg as he kicked away an incoming grappling hook before it wrapped around Merry’s railing. “Oi, Moss Head! Think you can possibly manage not to get lost if I send to over?” 

Zoro’s teeth clamped down on Wado’s hilt, “Just do it!” he shouted at the blond cook, taking a running leap and crouching low onto Sanji’s outstretched leg. 

One smooth and powerful motion later and the swordsman is flying fast through the bombardment, searching for a place to land. Marine soldiers backing away from him, bandana already tied about his head and all three swords drawn. A whirlwind of Hawkwave explodes almost as soon as his feet touch down on the enemy’s deck. 

“LUFFY!” 

Pistols and blades encroach upon Zoro from all sides, flash bombs and flares and exploding gasses. He’s immediately forced to close both eyes, though it doesn’t slow him down much. The sword master’s childhood training at the Isshin Dojo under master Koshiro had included rigorous sensory exercises. Months of sightless training, weeks of darkness, or forced silent lessons, and so fighting blind was nothing new to him. 

“Roronoa Zoro, former Pirate Hunter.” The voice that split the air around him sounded less than unpleasant. Having a famous name said like that rarely meant something good. The smoke cleared enough for the green haired swordsman to open his eyes. He stared up to see an enormous man carrying an equally enormous Meito. “This is the last stop for you.” The man promised with a crow that was cheered by his surrounding subordinates. Swinging back the dark-crimson blade in his hand, the man grinned. The blade he had sang for blood, Zoro could hear it, but the arm wielding that ancient katana was slower than Zoro, and he reveled in the understanding shared between himself and the vicious steel he had never met before. As the sluggish movement of his opponent bore down upon him, the first mate of the Strawhat crew sidestepped the high ranking Marine officer and, with reflexitory dividance, drove Kitetsu through the man’s neck and out the back of his skull. Thick blood and brain matter bubbled from between parted lips, dribbling down Zoro’s fingers and splattering onto the deck with such a sound that brought a handful of soldiers to drop their weapons for the favor of violent expulsion. 

Zoro pulled the cursed blade from the Marine, pushing the corpse away with his boot. The swordsman then turned to the remaining Marine soldiers, still armed, but backing away from him in a fearful fashion. Yes, he salivated at the taste of their fear on the air, you should be afraid. “Where is my captain!” he roared over the continued explosions and whistles of cannon fire of the ships surrounding them. No one answers, and Zoro barred his teeth, lunging forward to kill again for the answer he so desperately craved… when a familiar red caught his eye. On the ship across from the one he was on, Luffy struggled against a net the held him some twenty feet above an enemy deck. Below him laughed a man wearing a white coat; something long and sharp in his hands. Zoro’s guts twisted as he watched the Marine poke up towards at the net, with his lover struggling to get away. 

He didn’t think too hard about it, just traced the length of the mast of the Marine vessel with his eyes, and the distance to the ship next to it. ‘Yes, it will do.’ Skirting away from the shaking low-ranking soldiers, Zoro sliced the base of the main mast, feet digging in as he ran along the length upwards. As the mast fell, shredding and snapping rigging flew around him, one or two anchor-nails tearing gashes in his arms, one across his thigh, but he didn’t stop running. Eyes fixed only on his captain’s blood-red vest as he squirmed away from the malicious metal spike trying to impale him. 

Zoro leapt from the tip of the falling mast, his feet managing to catch steadily to the railing of the opposite ship. His swords screamed as he brought them down and around, and the air sparked and burned with the scent of fresh spilt blood. A strangled Will as if let loose from the demon within the swordsman rent at the air, and when he brought his green eyes up – there was not one Marine left to pose a threat. 

The swordsman cut his captain down, untangling him from the net before looking back across the choppy water. The remaining Marine ships were retreating, two of them sinking into the dark, unforgiving depths of the Grand Line. “You can stretch us back over to Merry, right Sencho?” Zoro asked, sheathing his swords and stepping up onto the wide rail. 

Luffy didn’t answer his first mate. He was still standing on the bloody deck surrounded by the mutilated bodies, and parts of bodies, of the Marines Zoro had killed. 

“Oi, Sencho?” Zoro called. 

Luffy looked up at his swordsman, brown eyes taking in the white shirt splattered with rubicund fluids, arms and leg split wide open and bleeding fresh. The black bandana still secured over the man’s green hair, and all the sudden the powerful stench of recently spilt blood. He took a step, and his sandal nocked against one of the fallen bodies. Something dislodged, a metal box fell out onto the swimming deck. Kneeling, Luffy picked it up, it opened at the side and he slid the catch. Inside danced a small brass figure, and on the inside of the lid was the picture of a smiling woman. This man’s woman? Luffy wondered. 

“Oi, Sencho?” Zoro called again. In the distance Nami had spotted them, and was guiding the Going Merry towards them, waving animatedly. 

“Did they all have to die?” Luffy asked quietly.

Zoro spun back around, but his captain hadn’t moved. He was still standing in the middle of the gore spattered deck, the little box held in his hands. “Sencho?” 

“All of them?” Luffy gasped, “…did they all deserve to die?” 

Within a heartbeat, Zoro’s blood ran colder than the steel of his swords; Luffy’s brown eyes swam before him with wide and unmistakable horror. He didn’t know what to say. 

Luffy swallowed before he bent, placing the box carefully onto the deck where he had found it. He didn’t speak as he walked to the rail and stood up on it. Merry was directly below. Luffy stared down, blinking though tears that streaked down his paled cheeks. He jumped… landing next to Nami with a heavy thump. Zoro watched as his captain turned away from their navigator to disappear below deck. Usopp threw a hook and rope that caught at Zoro’s feet, and he used it to slide down to rejoin his waiting nakama. 

Chopper was on him in a flash, stripping off his bloody shirt to disinfect deep lacerations on his arms, hissing through his teeth when he saw an equally deep and angry wound across the green haired man’s outer thigh, so deep that they could see white bone. Zoro didn’t complain, didn’t talk to the Zoan as he carefully cleaned and stitched and dressed his wounds. 

Nami and Usopp were whispering something near him, but he wasn’t sure what they were talking about until Nami pushed the sniper towards the hatch leading down into the men’s quarters. He looked less than happy, Usopp did, as he descended the ladder. Nami watched him go, and then she stood against the mast with her arms crossed. 

“Kenshi-san?” Robin addressed the swordsman softly as Chopper gathered up the bits and pieces left over from wrapping Zoro’s wounds, hurrying off to check on Sanji, who had apparently taken a hard hit to the head and was lying down in the dining room. 

“Mmm.” Zoro acknowledged the historian with a slight nod. His stomach kept turning over and over, and he didn’t really want to try opening his mouth for the hot nausea threatening to sweep over his tongue and teeth. 

“Our Sencho,” Robin says, eyes drawn away to the closed hatch Nami so diligently guarded. “He seems rather… shaken.” 

“Mmm.” 

“Do you know why?” 

Zoro swallowed back the acid that churned up from his belly, saliva immediately filling his mouth. Yes, he knows why… he knows all too well why. He looks away from the dark woman, clutching his stomach and katana at once. She doesn’t pry further, only turns away. She joins Chopper in the dining room to see to their injured cook. 

Head spinning, the green haired pirate pushes himself up from the crate he’d been sitting on while Chopper had stitched him up. His wounds burned, and the rough linen bandages itched already. But his stomach felt worse. Hot bile bubbling up into his chest, threatening to leave him puking his guts over the side until he was turned completely inside out, and maybe he deserved that! Why! Why had he gone so very out of control on those Marines? He knew Luffy’s value of life – every life… knew his Sencho’s stance on killing even their most hateful of enemies. His hand grazed the hilts of his swords, whose touch usually provides so much comfort and solace for him during his darkest and most indescribable pains. Their touch now is abrasive, rough, excruciatingly painful against his fingers. 

Nami looks up from her vigil over the hatch in the deck as Zoro fumbles with his belt. Gathering up his swords so that they’re clattering between his shaking fingers, and he throws them away from him – scabbards smacking against the storeroom wall before landing in a heap with a faint rattle. “Z-Zoro?” she stammers, looking between him and the katana she knows he loves. How many hours has he sat tenderly polishing those blades since they had met? How many meals has he missed, meticulously cleaning and caring for them? “Are… are you alright?”

Zoro’s breathing is wrong, and he gasps. “F-fine.” 

Usopp pushes open the hatch while Nami’s gaping at Zoro. “He’s not talking. Donno what’s spooked him so bad.” The sniper is just dropping the handle down when he notices the thick tension hovering in the air between the Strawhat swordsman and navigator. “Oi, what’s… w-wrong…” he sees the tangled heap of Zoro’s swords on the deck, and it’s a mark of how much Usopp really knows about the proud, green haired man, that he falls silent. Taking Nami by the hand, he guides her away towards the dining room with the rest of the crew. Not one word exchanged with the swordsman trembling on the deck. 

Chill sweat clings to his face as Zoro reaches for the hatch-handle, and at first he can’t grasp it, because his fingers are shaking so violently. The second time he reaches, he manages it. Climbing down the mast ladder, and it feels like the longest descent he’s ever made.


	2. An Unexpected Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace catches sight of his little bother's Jolly Roger. Chance meetings don't happen - not between pirates. He can't resist stopping by. Little did he know the delicate condition gripping the crew of the ship he's boarded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great Eiichiro Oda.

Luffy is curled in his hammock, clutching a blanket in a wad at his stomach. He can’t breathe. How very long has it been since he laid under such paralyzing feeling. Memories he pushes back behind his eyes, deep into the dark corners of his mind protected by the simple words “I don’t want to remember that!” but he can’t help but remember… he can’t help but acknowledge that it’s true! He doesn’t turn around when Zoro’s boots make audible contact with floor behind him. He can’t lift his head, he can’t… 

Looking down, Zoro stifles a choked gasp. He’s covered in blood! Of course he is. He probably smells like it too. Without saying anything, he crosses to the dressers and changes clothes, gathering up his bloody trousers, hamaraki, and shirt – his bandana too, and stuffing them unceremoniously into the laundry bin. 

“It’s not Zoro’s fault.” Luffy gasps, because it is all that he can do. 

Zoro can’t hold back the cracking in his throat this time, somewhere between a gasp and a terrible sob that rips his chest. 

Luffy’s cannot turn, only clutches tighter to the blanket bunched at his middle, drawing his knees up until he’s grasped himself into a tight ball. “I know it’s not his fault.” But his words fall on painful ears, and he allows tears to form in his eyes when his first mate speaks… 

“There’s no one else who can be blamed, Sencho.” 

“Don’t.” Luffy says, and his voice is wet. He is powerless… “My Zoro.” 

**

That was almost three days ago. 

Zoro calloused fingers rake through short green hair, earrings chiming with the breeze, and he can hear the rustling of Nami’s mikan trees behind him. He’s been sitting on the steps almost all that time, since he left his captain down in the men’s quarters. Not wanting to sleep in his own bunk because he can’t seem to bring himself to face his captain. His three katana lean against the cabin-wall some ten feet from him; untouched. It had taken everything he had to clean the blood from them, polish and sheath them so that the rust and degradation would not take hold. He hadn’t drawn them since, not even Wado Ichimonji, the blade of his everlasting ambition to become the Greatest Swordsman in the World and embodiment of his long dead friend to whom he had made that tearful vow. Her white scabbard stared at him, and he could feel all three of them wondering. Wondering what it was that had so terribly wronged their master into such paralyzed stagnation. 

“Oi, Shitty Swordsman.” 

The ship’s cook, Sanji, appeared around the corner. His blond head still wrapped lightly in white bandages. Damn cook nearly lost half his forehead when he didn’t notice that metal spear speeding towards him in that battle. He’s lucky it didn’t take his damn eye. “What is it, Love-Cook?” Zoro growled, hands in his hair. 

“Thought you might be hungry.” 

A faint *click, and Zoro knows a tray has been set down on the step next to his elbow. “Has he eaten yet?” the swordsman asks. 

Sanji leans back on the railing, tucking the slender shaft of a white cigarette to his lips and lighting it. “Nami-swan is taking him food right now. You’re both going to eat today, even if we have to shove it down your goddamn throats.” 

“Take it away.” Zoro gulps, shifting away from the cook and burying his face in folded arms. “Bring it back after he eats.” 

The blonde’s blue eyes search the Strawhat swordsman, wanting so much to shout at him for being such an insufferable bastard – but he can’t seem to bring up the words. “What the hell happened with you two?” he asks instead, exhaling a stream of yellow smoke into the air. 

The waves rock Merry softly, and the sound of the surf is soothing, but the green haired pirate doesn’t answer, he just grasped at his knees. His face pressed solidly onto the crooks of his arms. Sanji turns away to face the sea. The sea that has given him so much comfort all his life since he was a small child. There was no comfort offered by the sea today, because the waves could not tell him what ailed his captain and shitty nakama who hadn’t eaten, and barely spoken for going on three whole days. Watching the horizon the cook sees a small mass in the distance – black against the sun. As he watches it, the mass takes shape. A craft of some kind. Small. It's outline becomes more pronounced. It is approaching fast, much faster than a sailboat or rowboat. A gentle hum vibrates over the water and catches his ear. It’s familiar. He watches as a small the boat draws near, letting his cigarette go out without a thought or care. 

 

“Ooi!” Portgus D Ace hails as he sees the blonde Cook standing at the rail. Sanji raises an arm and waves, hurrying down the steps to throw out an anchor line to the Whitebeard Second Division Commander. After securing his one-man-boat to Merry, Ace jumps up onto the rail, kneeling as he looks about curiously at the deserted deck. He raises an eyebrow. “Oya, oya? It’s the middle of the day. Where is everybody?” 

Sanji scratches at his neck, just under the thick bandaging. “There’s a lot going on right now.” He says, then – as he cannot find the words he needs, the cook shakes his head. “Comm’on into the kitchen, we’ll fill you in.” 

Slightly bemused, Fist Fire Ace steps down and follows after the cook. His eyes drawn to the many points of damage on their caravel-class ship. He frowns at the splatters of blood that had not yet been washed from the deck, turned black from exposure to the sunlight. Luffy not being out and about, running around and jumping all over him when he came onboard worries the hell out of him. Pushing open the door into the dining room and kitchen, Ace sees the Strawhat Navigator’s red hair as she pours over a map on the table, and also a dark haired woman reading beside her. Usopp and Chopper are sitting across the room surrounded by seashells. They seem to be sorting and cataloging them on a ledger. He doesn’t see their green haired first mate.

“Ace!” Nami squeals, getting up from the table to fling arms around the Logia’s shoulders, and he hugs her back. 

“Nami, you’re as beautiful as ever.” He tells her, bowing his head. 

“Ace? What are you doing around these parts?” Usopp asks, also hurrying over to clap hands with Luffy’s older brother. “Did you find that Blackbeard you were looking for?”

“No, not yet. I’m following a lead to an island south of here, but when I saw your Jolly Roger, well, I couldn’t just pass up the opportunity.” He saw the dark woman eyeing him curiously from where she sat at the table, and he turned to bow politely to the woman he did not know. “Ma’am.” 

Nami giggled. She had always been impressed by Ace’s sheer politeness. “This is Robin, Nico Robin, you wouldn’t remember her – she joined just after we left Alabasta.” 

“Nico Robin?” Ace breathed, and they shared a knowing look before the Second Division Commander bowed again, low with dignification. “It is a privilege.” 

“Whitebeard Second Division Commander, Portgus D Ace.” Robin nodded, gracing the man with a small smile that was completely genuine. “What brings you here?” 

“Ace is Luffy’s older brother!” Chopper explained, wrapping small arms around Ace’s leg. “You came to see him, haven’t you? Maybe you can cheer him up!” 

“Cheer him up?” Ace asked, “Isn’t he always ridiculously happy?” 

“Not lately.” Sanji muttered, lighting a new cigarette. Usopp nodded somberly, and Nami’s eyes fell to the floor. 

“Sencho-san has been in bed for almost three days.” Robin told the Second Division Commander. “After an altercation with the Marines.” 

“Marines wouldn’t get Luffy down.” Ace reasoned, a small twitch to his lips. But he understood that laughter would not be welcomed in this moment. Noticing as well as simply sensing the distress of his brother’s crew, he settled down at table. Sanji sidled away to take down cups and sake, and to brew more coffee for his Robin-chwan.

“Not normally.” Nami agreed. “He’s always been so lively – happy to run off for a fight and eat everything in sight after, but…” She wrung her hands together. “He and Zoro… when they came back aboard… both of them were acting… very strange.” 

“He hasn’t eaten a thing.” Sanji told Ace, placing a full mug of yellow beer in front of him on the table. Usopp reached for his own glass, and Robin accepted a new cup of coffee. “Him or the Shitty Swordsman.” 

“Hasn’t talked to anybody either.” Usopp sighed. “Even when Chopper and me tried to get him up and out of bed.” 

The Zoan nodded slowly. “Zoro didn’t complain about leaving his bandages on – that’s not like him. He’s just been sitting at the back of the ship. He hasn’t been coming to bed.” 

The Logia User drank down a few swallows of his beer, carefully searching the faces of his brother’s concerned crew. Robin watched him, and when their eyes came together he sheepishly lowered his glass. “I’m sure it’s nothing too serious.” He said. “Maybe they’re just having a spat… They are still together – right?” he asked. 

Nami nodded. “As far as we know, but they haven’t been talking.” 

“Where are they now?”

“Sencho’s below deck in his hammock.” Sanji told him, then he jabbed his thumb at the back wall. “Shitty Marimo’s on the stairs.” 

Ace finishes his beer, then stands up, stretching his back. “Right…” Eyes casting about, he sees their wine rack. “Can I take that?” he asks, pointing out a bottle of sake. 

Sanji smiles and nods, taking the neck of the bottle from the shelf and tossing it over. The Logia User gave a wave and a smile, before passing back outside onto the deck. Ace’s presence is a lot like Luffy’s, and they are much alike in appearance, except for the older man’s freckles. His infectious smile has already made its way around the table, and Nami is breathing and feeling better than she has since Luffy disappeared below deck. 

“That man – Portgus D Ace – he is Luffy’s brother?” Robin asks into the silence that man has left behind him. 

“Yea. Shitty incredible, isn’t it?” Sanji smiled, settling himself at the table. 

Robin stares at the door where the Logia departed. She’d heard rumors about him, dark things about the boy who had been captured by Edward Newgate, the strongest man in the world. About how, instead of being eliminated, the boy had been welcomed into the family fold, emerging as Second Division Commander with a bounty in the thousands of millions of belis. The famous Mera Mera no Mi user, Fist Fire Ace. She smiles as she pictures the two of them together, the Commander and her Captain. Two D brothers. “Certainly, incredible.” She whispers.


	3. What the Brother Knows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace confides in Zoro, the horrors of Luffy's past, and the incident that prompted his relocation inland to live with Dandan and the Mountain Bandits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great Eiichiro Oda.

Ace finds Roronoa Zoro curled into a painful-looking ball on the steps at the stern of the ship. The man doesn’t even flinch as he clomps up, swinging the sake bottle in his hand. 

“Oya aye?” He prods the green haired pirate with his foot.

Zoro looks up at him, recognizing the familiar voice of is lover’s brother. “Ace?” He says, and he’s reminded of the last thing the two of them ever said to each other. ‘Make sure he’s happy, and keep an eye on him for me, huh? My damn kid brother’s always getting himself into trouble, ya’ know?’ Hot guilt and searing reality churns the swordsman’s empty guts, and he buries his face again in his arms. 

“It’s bad then, huh?” The older pirate sits down at Zoro’s hip and uncorks the sake bottle he’s brought with him, taking a swallow before tapping the green haired man’s knee. “Luffy told me once, that ‘being alone is the most painful thing in the world, worse than being beaten or stabbed or tortured.’ He was only about eight years old at the time, all bloodied up. He had that damn look on his face that he gets sometimes… Ya know? The one that tells you he knows exactly what he’s saying.” 

Zoro felt Ace knock against his knee again with the sake bottle, and he gradually raised his head, taking it from the Logia User. “He always knows what he’s saying.” Zoro croaked, upending the bottle and taking a swallow. When he lowered it down he coughed a little. “Even if it sounds stupid sometimes.” 

Ace put his head back and laughed, and Zoro smiled a little. Both brothers had that gift, that infection happiness that seemed to swim in the air. “He’s pretty dumb, my little brother!” The Commander wipes a tear from his eye before falling disturbingly quiet. “The rest of your crew… They said he’s been in bed the last three days. Not talkin’, not eatin’ – said you’d been the same.” The swordsman didn’t replay, but took another long swallow. “Marines?” Ace asked, “What they do?” 

“It wasn’t the Marines.” Zoro says, trying to hand the bottle back to the older pirate, but Ace just pushes it back. 

“I want your tongue nice and loose, Roronoa Zoro.” He says, nocking into him with one shoulder, and the swordsman grinned. “If it wasn’t Marines, then what was it?” The green haired man’s eyes drifted to his three katana propped up against the wall next to them, and Ace followed his gaze. “Eh? Thought it might be something like that.” The Mera Mera no Mi user stretched out his legs with a sigh. 

“Mmm?” Zoro tilted his head. “ ‘ haven’t told you anything yet.” 

“Na, don’t need to – Observation Haki –” Ace tapped the side of his head with two fingers. “If it crosses your mind loud enough, I can get a general idea.” 

Zoro doesn’t really get it, but he nods anyway. “He was really… Luffy… and I didn’t even think.” 

“He’s clear on death.” Ace told Zoro gently, “Knows people are out to kill him just because he’s a pirate… knows good people die because of bad people. Knows they die because they protect someone, knows they die… for all sorts of different reasons.” 

“But he doesn’t kill.” Zoro took another drink, swallowing hard against the hot liquid burning his throat. “Morgan, Krieg, Kuro, Arlong, Crocodile, Enel, Marine captains with their flunkies and solders… he’s never killed anyone…” 

Ace snorted. “That’s not true.” He told the swordsman. Zoro looked up. Ace crossed his arms over his knees, staring over the ocean. “Back home, on Dawn Island, Luffy lived in Foosha Village – before the geezer brought him up the hill to live with me at Dadan’s place.” Zoro continued to tip sake passed his lips as he listened to the older pirate, drinking in his every word. Luffy never talked about his life before becoming a pirate. Never. Hearing that Luffy actually had a past feels slightly surreal to him. Ace’s voice mixes with the push of the wind as he continues. “I never went down to Foosha before Luffy came. It was just a little port town with a few houses, a few little shops and a bar. But after a while living up in the hills, Luffy started to get pretty… maudlin. Waking up at night, tossing and turning; he’d be so distracted that he’d keep getting knocked about when we got into fights. Sabo told me he was probably just homesick…” 

Sabo? Zoro wondered, but he didn’t have a chance to ask about the simple use of the unfamiliar name as Ace continued with his story. 

“I asked the geezer where Luffy lived before, because he’d stop by every now and then to talk to Dadan, and remind us how we’ll make great Marines one day.” Ace chuckled and shook his head. “That’s when I learned about the village. I decided to surprise Luffy, take him down to see his old friends, because I was sure he had lots of them… being Luffy. He lit up like a bloody firecracker when he began to recognize the road we were walking along. We ran about, and he introduced me to mayor Woop Slap, and showed me the well, and the sheep, and the peer where he had met Shanks for the first time… He took my arm and drug me into this bar – I can still feel the pinch from those swinging doors when my arm got stuck!” Ace smiled. “He introduced me to Makino-san. And you know, I thought she was his mom; the way she gathered him up in her arms and hugged and kissed him. But she told me she had just been the one to look after him, no relation. Luffy ran around the bar, reminiscing and hugging and calling out to people he hadn’t seen for the better part of two years since he’d been drug up the hill to live with Dadan and me.” 

Ace’s face fell a little, “Makino-san cooked me a lunch, and I sat at the bar eating it while Luffy ran around. She thanked me for bringing him to see everyone and for taking such good care of him – because she said she knew I had been the one doing it. Then… then she asked me if he’d been coping well after the incident.” 

Zoro placed the empty sake bottle down on the step next to him. “Incident?” he asked. 

The Logia User nodded, still staring at the gentle sea pushing swell after swell against each other with a familiar swish and sway. “She told me about how Luffy had been trying to learn how to use is new rubber ability, and how it had gone so terrible for him so suddenly.” Ace swallowed hard, but pressed on, pushing painful words up out of his chest for the swordsman. “The people in the village didn’t care.” He said, “They loved Luffy… had known him since he was just a baby… but on the day of the summer fairs, when the rich families from Goa come out to the surrounding villages to shop and ogle the world.” Ace looked at Zoro. “Goa Kingdom, it’s a.. a Noble area.” The swordsman stared blankly the commander, “They’re not nice people, let’s just put it that way.”

The swordsman was reminded of Luffy’s choice of words, often describing people in this way – a way that seems so very simple and vague to those who don’t really know him. He sorts people into categories: nice, good, bad, mean… or not nice, not good, not bad, not mean. Ace, though he appears so much more intelligent than Luffy, seemed to have this same simplistic ranking scale. 

“Foosha Village prepared for their rich guests due to arrive from Goa City, that same summer that Luffy had eaten his devil’s fruit.” Ace continued; eyes fixed upon the rolling sea. “Makino-san and the mayor had wanted to keep Luffy safely indoors, but it’s Luffy, keeping him away from a party is next to impossible. He got out, and somebody noticed him stretching out a hand to get something – probably meat…” Ace’s hands balled up. “Some fucking Noble decided he’d make a fine slave, and nobody was watching him. Makino-san told me how he had been taken away, and how worried she was for two weeks as they searched high and low for him. The mayor had even gone so far as to call the geezer. They found him, or… they saw him.” Ace took a deep breath. “Makino-san said he just came back to the bar on his own. All wide eyed and staring about, covered in blood. She said he just sat down on the floor and started to cry.” 

Zoro was clutching at his pants, clutching so hard that his knuckles were white and his arms shook. 

Portgus D Ace hung his head. “I asked around, asked everybody I knew, and everybody they knew. It took me a while, but I found out what happened to Luffy in those two weeks… They don’t treat slaves very well in Goa, not that slaves are treated very nicely anywhere in the world. He was only six years old…” 

“What happened?” Zoro asked, his voice so quiet that it came out as a strangled growl. 

“He was… used.” Ace said, “I don’t know all the specific details… but I learned that much. Luffy had managed to kill his new owners, and get clear of the city. Get back to Foosha, all alone. The scandal over that rich family’s death was still on the books, pictures and all. A total of sixteen people, two of them had been Luffy’s age. I can still remember reading the bottom of that report… The statement that said it was the work of some vicious, violent animal. Checking the dates, I realized that was then that the geezer brought him to live up in the hills. Probably afraid that Goa officials would find him if he’d stayed in the village.” 

Zoro’s eyes were wide, his whole body trembling. The hot trill of sake was still on his skin, but any relaxing sense of inebriation was long gone. His Captain had been six years old when… when… 

“So, you see, he has killed before. He knows how to do it.” Ace says, lifting his eyes again. “He doesn’t like too, you’re probably right about that – he has an incredible appreciation for people, for life, for the world…” 

“What should I do?” Zoro asked, and Ace looked towards the swordsman, arms trembling and body stiff with reeling reaction. “How do I–”

“He loves you.” Ace said, tilting his hat forward. Zoro’s eyes snapped onto the older pirate. “ ‘told me so, back in Alabasta. I love my Zoro! he said. When he gets like this, well, he needs to be shown some… some care.” 

Zoro swallowed. “He doesn’t want to see me.” 

“Like hell.” The Logia sorts. “Comm’on, get up!” He took Zoro under the arm, dragging him to his feet. “I know my stupid little brother. We’re going to give him what he needs, so man up!” 

Zoro stumbled as Ace stood him up, “We?” he shuddered. 

“Yep, got a problem with that?” Zoro wasn’t really sure. He was still wrapping his brain around the implication, if it was an implication that Ace meant. They were brothers?! – well, not that it really mattered, but did it? All the sudden the Mera Mera no Mi user bursts with a snort of laughter. “We’re not blood related!” He told Zoro, wiping tears from his eye, “So you can stop worrying about that.” He put his arm around the swordsman’s shoulders as they made their way down the stairs towards the main deck. “He needs this, trust me.”


	4. Some Care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace and Zoro give Luffy the kind of care an attention he so desperately needs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great Eiichiro Oda.

Zoro saw Sanji and Nami standing by the railing across the upper landing, Usopp and Chopper just inside the open door into the dining room. Robin was in her usual chair on the main deck reading a book. Ace drug him forward towards the trap door, and she looked up at him with a wide smile. “Commander.” She nodded. 

“Ah, Nico Robin.” Ace sunk his head in a deep, polite bow. Zoro clamped under one strong arm so that his face is squashed against the older man’s ribcage. “I do not want to be indelicate,” says the Whitebeard Second Division Commander, “but I think I should warn you… it might become rather… noisy, and I do not wish your reading to be interrupted.” 

The dark haired woman giggled into the back of her hand. Zoro blushing furiously. She got up out of her chair and smiled. “Thank you, Ace-san.” She said, “Excuse me.” And she retreated up to the upper deck, where Sanji took her hand and led her into the kitchen. Nami’s arms were folded on the railing, and she was grinning from ear to ear. 

Ace took in a deep breath of salty sea air, the sun falling across his face as Zoro wriggled next to him, slightly tippy and still blushing and staring about like he wanted to run away. The Second Division Commander released him, in favor of wrapping one fist into the swordsman’s shirt. “Deep breaths,” he said, face to face with the swordsman. His other hand mimicking a slow rhythm to guide him. “Relax.” 

Nami laughed as she watched Ace talk Zoro down from whatever kind of attack he was having. She wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, but when the Logia reached down to open the hatch and push Zoro down the ladder, following after him himself, she felt assured that all this mess would be cleared up soon. She stretched before joining the rest the crew at the dining table. Sanji already setting out supper and tea, and swooning over her and Robin without a care in the world. 

**

At the base of the mast ladder, Zoro stood – rigid and horribly nervous – while Luffy’s big brother closed the hatch and stole quietly down the pegs. The Logia pressing a finger to his lips. It was dim, but not dark inside the men’s quarters. Hammocks mostly empty, two couches faced each other near the port wall, the crew’s lockers at the other end. Piles of laundry had started to build up like trophies, but the floor was mercifully clean, and Ace’s boots made almost no sound as he crept to the only occupied hammock. Taking off his hat, he hung it on the same peg that Luffy’s straw hat hung from, and with two fingers he prodded at his little brother’s shoulder. 

“Go away.” Luffy grumbled. His voice was clear, and it was apparent to Zoro that he had not been asleep before they came in. 

Ace grinned, jabbing him again. 

“Oi! Go away!” Luffy swung back, but his brother was too quick. Ducking to avoid the arm, he thrust both palms into the Captain’s back and pushed, upending the hammock so that Luffy tumbled out to land in a heap behind one of the sofas. “Goddamnit –!” the Strawhat captain had spun around, and was on his feet in a flash, fist already calked back to throw a punch, curses and recriminations formed on the tip of his tongue when his big brown eyes clapped down onto his older brother’s face… and he froze. 

Ace stood with his arms crossed over his chest, red beaded necklace flashing in the light peering in from the portholes behind him. “It’s been a while, Luffy!” Laughed the Second Division Commander. 

Luffy lips twitched weakly, a miniscule chuckle escaping white lips. “A-Ace?” he stammered, “When did you…” the captain saw Zoro standing nervously by the mast ladder, and he smiled. 

“There, you see!” Ace reached out an arm to drag Zoro to his side, tousling the green hair on his head. “He doesn’t wanna see me! O’ course he wants to see you!” 

Luffy swallowed. “Yea.” He said. Nodding slightly. “Where’ve you been?” he asked his swordsman. 

Zoro peered at his captain from under the Logia User’s fingers. “I… I, uh…” 

“He’s not really much of a talker, is he?” Ace asked Luffy as Zoro gulped and sputtered, but didn’t actually manage to form any clear words. 

Zoro suddenly found himself being pushed onto one of the couches, his captain landing next to him. Ace stood in front of them, considering them with his arms crossed. “Luffy!” he said, pointing at his younger brother. “You’re crew is all kinds of freaked out, and your lover here – he tells me you had a moment, is that right?” Zoro watched his captain’s face flush, and then to slowly nod, his hands open on his lap. 

“Good thing I came around then, huh?” 

Again, Luffy nodded. 

“I wanna show Zoro what we did for you last time this happened. That okay with you?” 

A second of contemplation this time, gears turning behind the brown eyes before again, Luffy nodded. 

Zoro wasn’t wearing a shirt, and neither was Luffy. He could feel his captain shivering – not with cold… was he nervous? Ace’s all-business attitude fading from his face as the swordsman reached for his captain, gently pulling him to his chest. Luffy sunk against him. Tears streamed from the young pirate’s eyes and down the scarred front of his first mate’s chest. “I’ve got you, Sencho.” Zoro crooned, because how could he not? His captain grasped for him, and for a few moments Ace didn’t say anything, he just let the two of them be together, because they were lovers, he knew that. 

When the two broke apart and Luffy wiped his eyes on the back of his arms, and Ace unfolded his own. “I told Zoro about what happened.” He said gently. Luffy looked up. “Before you came to live with Dadan and me.” The captain hiccupped, and then nodded. 

“Need Zoro.” Luffy muttered, “Need Ace too.” 

Zoro was still trying to wrap his mind around this strange development. Yet, as Ace knelt down and took his captain’s face, gently bringing their lips together, he found he didn’t care. The older man obviously knew what he was doing. He had known Luffy for far longer – knew things he couldn’t hope to understand… So… so if this was what it took to have his captain back, to make up for the hurt he had caused…

The green haired pirate leaned in, lips lying slow wet kisses along his captain’s neck as Luffy tasted the Logia User. Ace reached out with his left hand to splay his fingers with Luffy, and with his right he caught Zoro’s, pressing their palms together. Zoro took his young captain’s other hand. Suddenly he became aware of an odd circulation, a rush that passed from one hand to the other, and he became distinctly aware that they were all sharing the same heartbeat. Luffy crooned, and Ace leaned back. 

It was Zoro’s turn to approach his lover’s blood warmed lips, and he took in the gentle wet taste that belonged to both his captain, and also to the other man who had savored Luffy before him. Ace watched the two of them for a brief moment before sloping forward to press between the youngest pirate’s legs, wrapping warm lips around an exposed nipple. Licking and nipping until it hardened, standing out just a little off his chest – pink and throbbing. 

Zoro tasted Luffy’s gasp as his back arched, leaning into his swordsman with his brother between his legs. “Zoro… Zoro!” There was a hysteretic edge in his breath the Zoro did not like. 

“Calm down, Luffy.” Ace warned, gently licking a trail down the captain’s side. “Relax, and let us…” powerful jaws clamped down just above the rubber man’s hipbone, and he keened. 

Zoro watched; his panic fading quickly to rapt festination as he shared breath with his captain while Ace worried and licked and bit at Luffy's side. “Sencho.” He whispered, lips back on the tender spot where his captain's shoulder meet his neck, and breathing in the younger man's salty musk that he had missed so very much as he sat for long hours in hunger and worry on the steps at Merry’s stern. 

Gradually, still tasting and touching, smothering each other in warm heat, the three men managed to get out of all their clothes and shoes, hands grasping for one another. Ace pushed Luffy down in the center of the sofa, and had him wrap his own fingers around his swollen red member. After that he pulled Zoro up and away from his captain. 

Zoro shivered as Ace held him up and back against his own chest. Ace’s muscular frame, very much like the swordsman’s, was much different from what he was used to with Luffy. His captain was strong, yes, stronger than a lot of people gave him credit for, but because of his devil’s fruit he never could develop hard muscular tissue, and thus remained rather skinny and peculiarly… soft. The Commander on the other hand, lips and tongue peppered his shoulders and upper back with kisses and bites, pressed his firmness into his back, and he could feel every curve of the older man. Ace seemed to somehow know exactly where the interlocking tissue of Zoro’s musculature was most tender, fingers touching and warring back on thick abdominals, massaging just above the swordsman’s hips… and while the commander touched Luffy’s lover, the captain observed, gently stroking himself as his fist mate looked on. Their eyes locked together – green to brown – and they whispered things to each other along that fine line of connection created by their gaze. 

‘Is this really okay, Sencho?’ Zoro asked his captain.

‘It’s fine.’ Luffy answered, ‘Ace is strong, and he’s gentle. I know he won’t hurt my Zoro.’ 

‘Sencho…’ 

‘Does Zoro like it?’ Luffy asked, ‘He can be loud. I don’t mind. I really want to hear Zoro’s voice.’ 

“Lu-ffy!” Zoro gasped, and this time it was out loud. His eyes rolling back as Ace’s strong fingers strayed down to wrap around his girth, stroking and pumping him with deliberate smooth motions. 

“Don’t close your eyes.” Ace told the Swordsman as Zoro’s head fell back onto his shoulder. The commander’s breath fell across his back and rippled warmth against his skin. “Look at Luffy,” he told the swordsman, “Watch him…. Watch him. Watch him, watching you watch him.” The green haired pirate shuddered, his legs hardly able to support his own weight as the Second Division Commander passed one hand over his scarred chest to worry hard nipples, and other tenderly stroking his erection. Ace’s touch was hot, unnaturally hot, and Zoro became aware that the man was consciously warming the surfaces of his hands using his Mera Mera ability! Forcing his eyes down, Zoro again locked line-of-sight with his lover, the two of them connected so completely that they could not see the room around them. 

Bit by bit, the heat of Ace’s touch faded, and he released his hold on Zoro so that the swordsman stood before his captain, shivering and hungry for him, a fine dribble of precum glistening at the very tip of his aching head. He gasped at the air, knowing his lover was so very hungry for him. 

“Which one of you usually bottoms?” Ace asks as delicately as he can. 

“We take turns.” Zoro found himself saying. Luffy nodded; his eyes half lidded. 

“Alright, let’s make it you then, little brother.” Ace pulled Zoro forward and Luffy to his feet. The swordsman was soon staring down his captain’s back, his hands around his slender hips. He had no idea how he had gotten there, his mind in a haze. He buried his nose in Luffy’s black hair, holding him close. Ace left them for a moment, fidgeting with his discarded shorts. When he returned he had a small vial in his hands. “I know you two probably have your own, but you can try this out.” He said, taping off the cap. Zoro’s hands had not been idle, and as he traversed the curve of Luffy’s chest, over his abdomen until he had his strong fingers wrapped around his captain, gently stretching him, because he knew just how much Luffy loved to be stretched there. Ace chuckled and Zoro released his grip, palms out to receive a measure of lube. 

The swordsman slicked one palm over himself, the other he applied between his captain’s sweating buttocks, fingers stroking and spreading him until Luffy’s knees shook, and Ace had to hold him against his lover’s chest to keep him from sliding down onto the floor. “Take your time,” Ace tells Zoro, licking his lips. “He’s got to really feel this… really, really.” He leans in, placing a warm kiss on Luffy’s stomach before lowering himself to his knees. Zoro felt the muscles in his captain’s lower back jump as the Second Division Commander wrapped his lips around the young captain’s erection. Luffy’s head resting on his lover’s shoulder while the swordsman fingered him up and down over that taught sensitive entrance. 

“Ohnnm, Z—Zoro.” Luffy keened, unable to do anything but hang in the space between his older brother and his lover and just shiver. Zoro kissed and nibbled the flesh behind his captain’s ear, slowly pushing one finger past the tight muscular ring and into Luffy’s body. The rubber man felt himself open for his lover, and he tried to relax without letting himself fall. 

“I’ve got you… Sencho… I’ve got you.” Zoro crooned in his captain’s ear, one arm clutching around his lover’s chest to hold him steady as he worried the flesh wide enough to insert a second finger. He could just see Ace’s slow – very slow – tempo pumping his captain. He had never worked Luffy in such a fashion before, but seeing now how the younger pirate was reacting, he made a mental note to try it sometime. He slipped in a third finger, and Luffy let out a low whine, his head pressing back far enough for Zoro to enfold his lips in his own. Zoro’s tongue pushed against Luffy’s, pressing between both sets of lips as the swordsman drove in all three fingers slowly and sweetly, circling until he felt confident that Luffy was more than ready to accept him. 

Ace seemed to just know what was going on, because without missing a beat he wrapped his hands around Luffy’s legs, lifting them from the ground and spreading him wide to receive his swordsman completely. Zoro relinquished the heat of Luffy’s lips, one arm still supporting his captain’s chest as the other guided himself toward his goal. Ace assisted with gentle adjustments to the legs he held up, and as Zoro slid inside his lover’s body the captain crooned and cried out with unintelligible noises and moans of pleasure that most surely would echo no only to the deck, but across the very sea itself. 

They moved like this, Luffy, Zoro, and Ace. The world ceased to exist, and the gentle rocking of the Going Merry was the only sensation they could admit, and that only because it drove them so wonderfully close to each other. Zoro watched a drip of sweat run down his forehead to land on his captain’s back, and Ace’s rhythm increased. Luffy panted and gasped and moaned and begged, one hand clinging to the arm Zoro had draped over his chest to support him, the other nested in his niichan’s dark hair. Zoro’s earrings chimed under his right ear, and he felt a familiar warmth building in his groin. No! No-no-no-no! He begged. Not yet! not yet…! Fighting release, Zoro became aware of a change in his captain’s breathing, a hitch tinged with soft whines of desperation. Suddenly he fell silent, his breath caught in a single strangled moment before he cried out. Ace leaning away, wiping a dribble of cum from his chin. He grinned up at Zoro, and the swordsman rocked back, thighs slapping with bruising force against his captain until he too came, filling his lover, and his release felt like it lasted for years.


	5. More Than Safe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is Luffy ready to face his crew once again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the great Eiichiro Oda.

Portgus D Ace guided his brother and lover back to sink onto the sofa. The swordsman – having already pulled out from his lover’s body – clutched his captain to his chest, and Luffy nuzzled into the crook created by Zoro’s arm, his eyes closed as his breath slowly began to return to normal. The Logia Fruit User pulled a blanket from one of the surrounding hammocks and covered them with it, smiling as he saw the green haired man gently stroking his little brother’s side. Ace picked up his clothes and dressed while the lovers lay curled together. 

Pushing down the hatch after climbing out onto the main deck, Ace looked up to realize that night had fallen. Stars winked in a black-blue sky, slips of pink and red bands of wash-light sparkling and spinning above. He saw one star shoot across the horizon, and he remembered a similar night when he and Sabo had once preformed this very same act that he and Zoro had just done for their Luffy’s sake. Remembered how they had sat naked amid the dense branches above their old treehouse hideout, listening to Luffy’s gentle breathing as he finally rested easy. The Commander closed his eyes, and made a wish on that star, as he knew Luffy would want him to. 

“Good evening, Ace-san.” 

He turned around to see that Nico Robin was back in the same chair she had been in when he had brought Zoro down onto the deck that afternoon. “Good evening.” He said, bowing his head. “I hope we did not disturb you.”

“Not at all.” Said the dark woman. Nami giggled from the landing above, Usopp and Chopper and Sanji next to her. 

“Please tell me those shitty bastards are finished moping around.” Sanji grumbles while tapping cigarette ash over the side of the ship. 

Ace laughed. “I think everything is alright now.” 

“Anything we should know for the future?” Nami asks the Second Division Commander, her head in her hands as she leaned on the railing. 

The older pirate looked back down at the hatch. A thoughtful expression stretching his features from ear to ear. “Na!” he said. “I think now, everything is as it should be.” 

**

Zoro woke the next morning with sunlight glaring in his eyes. Luffy was tucked in close to his naked chest, the captain’s gentle breathing just audible as it passed between smiling lips. Not wanting to wake his resting lover, Zoro carefully extricated himself, dressing quietly, and climbed up the mast ladder for the deck above. 

“Good morning!” Ace called from the second level, a steaming mug held between his fingers. 

Zoro smiled up at the Second Division Commander. “Aye.” He breathed. He had thought it would be awkward to see him, after everything that they had done together, but it wasn’t. Ace’s smile was just as it always was. His body language just the same, and his unique aura, just as Zoro remembered him upon meeting for the first time in Alabasta some five months before. He hadn’t forgotten how the older pirate had prepared his body for Luffy, or the soft words he had said, directions and advice while they made love together, or even the horrific details of his Captain’s childhood trauma – but none of it seemed to matter. If anything, he respected Portgus D Ace more now than he had before. 

Nami appeared at Ace’s shoulder, she too smirking down at Zoro. “Please, tell me you’re hungry?” She breathed as she rested her hands on the railing. 

Zoro joined the crew at the dining table, and was halfway through his third helping of eggs and crepes and ham, when the door opened. Conversation, bickering, and laughter immediately died on the air. Nobody seemed to even want to breathe… everyone except Zoro and Ace, who both continued to chew, their forks tapping and scraping against their plates. Luffy’s face was expressionless, and as he entered the room to take a place beside his swordsman he blinked. 

“Uhn.. um… s-s-sorry, everybody…I…”

“Ah! Shut up, Sencho!” Sanji plunked down a heaping plateful of ham and eggs in front of his captain. Ace and Zoro both snorting into their coffee. Nami let out a high pitched peel of laughter, and Robin giggled uncontrollably. Luffy’s smile returns as he is beset upon by Usopp, who has been dying to show him this Way-Super-Cool-Dial he and Chopper had been playing with, the reindeer hanging off his captain’s shoulders as he explained the hilarious accidents already caused by the shell. 

Zoro breathed easy, his right hand resting on the hilts of his three katana, belted comfortably at his side once again. He looked across the table at the man who had given him the means to bring his captain back from what must have only been the brink of despair. Portgus D Ace nodded, lifting his mug in a silent toast, and they both understood... Knowing this little piece of Luffy’s past will allow Zoro to understand how to keep his lover not only safe, but whole, and he so very much intends to – for as long as he lives.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is more than welcome! Let me know what you think!


End file.
